(NewsNation) — Country music legend Dolly Parton’s free book program is set to lose state funding in Missouri, multiple outlets reported this month.
Missouri will cut funding for Parton’s Imagination Library from $6 million to $2 million for fiscal year 2027, according to the local outlet News Tribune. The program provides free books to children aged 5 and under every month.
The program expanded to Missouri in 2023, and in 2025, the state became one of 11 to provide full government investment and statewide coverage for it, according to the outlet.
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The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said the Imagination Library will continue to provide books to children who are currently enrolled, but starting July 1, the program will stop accepting new children, local outlet WBIR reported.
“Unfortunately, the State has not fulfilled its commitment to sustain full funding for the program,” Michelle Anthony, regional director for Parton’s Dollywood Foundation, said, according to the News Tribune. She added that the program provides books for more than 170,000 children in the state.
Parton created the Imagination Library in 1995 for children from her home county in East Tennessee, according to its website. The program has expanded to several states across the country and has gone international, with Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia joining the initiative.
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Since 1995, the Imagination Library has donated more than 300 million books, according to its website, which boasts that 1 in 6 children under the age of 5 in the U.S. receive books from the program.
The Asssociated Press contributed to this report.
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